I recently got a 110gallon long (6ft) aquarium for $120 (glass only) and two more 30 gallons for $20 each. I am currently building a rack/stand for this and several other smaller tanks. I'd like to move my 3 severums, 4 port acara cichlids, and wild-type sailfin molly "colony" into the 110 to grow out and possibly breed. I have 1x55gal, 3x30gal, 2x20gal,3x10gal tanks (empty) that I can use as hospital/nursery tanks. The sailfin babies have not been predated upon by any other fish. I also wish to plant this tank, probably going to do this cheaply using local river fast-growth species (cleaned), instead of beautiful amazon swords, etc.

My questions:
1. Does any of this spell disaster so far (am I forgetting someone has territory issues and will kill someone else, or perhaps I overlooked someone's breeding pH requirements)?

2. In addition to the above-mentioned species, will adding Dwarf Flag Cichlids, Festivums, and Keyhole Cichlids be appropriate? I would like to breed all of these fish and do not mind removing a pair temporarily for breeding, or permanently if things get out of hand. Will they be constantly breeding/territory dispute-ing or can I just lower the temp/raise the pH just enough to get them out of "season" when necessary?

3. What would be the ideal population size for each species (to both look nice, and avoid overpopulation)?

4.1 What sort of filtration am I looking at? I currently have a Fluval 205, an old higher-output canister (with no labels), and an AC110 (not sure if this is the right model name, its the largest HOB they make). I need to keep at least one of these filters on my 75 gallon oscar tank. Will any combination of 2 of these filters be enough filtration?

4.2 If the filtration isn't enough, or I find that the oscar's need to keep 2 of their filters (most likely), I will probably be a cheapo and make a fully-submersed veggie sump out of a 20 gallon long. Is that large enough for a sump for this sized aquarium?

4.2.1 What plants would suck the most out of the water, yet stay IN the tank (no huge plants growing out into my living room!)?

I have a lot of tanks, but not nearly enough to raise this amount of fry all at once. I'm hoping to grow some out and sell/give away the rest as needed. Of course income is great, at least enough to support the hobby, but I really just find raising fry fascinating. I hope this can be a win/win in those regards. Please don't feel that you need to answer ALL of these questions, or be an expert. Any information is welcomed/needed!
Thank you,
Craig

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I don't know (every cichlid is different) but I will say I have a severum in an African Cichlid tank and he is very aggressive. Kinda funny he's second in the pecking order. The dwarfs should be fine so long as you provide many hiding places, the severum might look at them as a snack. Filtration don't really know to much (still learning) but I do know just get a powerful one cichlid's like to kick up a lot of dirt, especially during territory fights.

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20 Gallon, 6 zebra dinos, 4 green tigers, 3 dojo loach's, 2 blue gourami's, 2 GBR's, 2 bristle plecto's, 2 longfin rosybarbs, 1 syno cat, 1 leopard puffer
25 Gallon, 2 clown loach's, 1 yoyo loach, 1 veil angle, 1 royal plecto, 1 female krib.
36 Gallon bowfront, 1 Green Severum, 2 Auratus, 1 Venustus, 1 Acei, 1 Kenyi, 1 Duboisi, 1 Demasoni, 2 other africans I haven't identified, 2 Pictus Cat, 1 Rainbow shark, 3 tertas, 1 Firemouth cichlid

Is it a true port acara? after ww2 they were not available in america and rather the black acara was used in its place. they are burrowers and will dig out holes for their fry and are only aggressive at spawning time.

severums are mean little snots and can/will pick off other fish especially those that dont fight back with the same aggression.

Plants, id get hearty ones like swords and anubias.

Wow! Are you guys for real about the severums!? I thought they were supposed to be super-docile! The ones that I have are still juvenile, the largest is maybe 4 inches total length, but they all 3 get bullied by this massive farm raised sailfin molly (which is quite a site), whom we've named Ron Jeremy (think live-bearer anatomy). That molly pair had 50+ babies in that tank and I also keep 4 golden topminnows as well, and none of them have been eaten. I've secretly watched them (creepily) and they have never once even "looked" at any of these bite-sized fish. They also only eat flake food for some reason. Do you think this temperment will change as they grow out more, or am I lucky?

The guy at the shop called them "Cichlasoma portalegrense", though its an almost strictly african cichlid shop. Most of their fish are wild-caught or F1s, however he said that these were most likely farm-raised (which may mean they are not the true port). I don't know much about these fish, but bought them after having never seen them before and using the store's computer to read about their behavior/requirements. I will try to get some pics up here very soon. Is there any key difference I should look for? Or could you refer me to some images of both types?

Thanks again guys!

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You might get lucky with the severums but don't count on it. here's a vid of my 36G african (besides the severum) Btw they are all still juvi moving to a 55G within 2 months. They get along for the most part mainly because they are all very aggressive.

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20 Gallon, 6 zebra dinos, 4 green tigers, 3 dojo loach's, 2 blue gourami's, 2 GBR's, 2 bristle plecto's, 2 longfin rosybarbs, 1 syno cat, 1 leopard puffer
25 Gallon, 2 clown loach's, 1 yoyo loach, 1 veil angle, 1 royal plecto, 1 female krib.
36 Gallon bowfront, 1 Green Severum, 2 Auratus, 1 Venustus, 1 Acei, 1 Kenyi, 1 Duboisi, 1 Demasoni, 2 other africans I haven't identified, 2 Pictus Cat, 1 Rainbow shark, 3 tertas, 1 Firemouth cichlid

read this, Port Acara | Cichlasoma portalegrense

mongabay is great for straight information on fish as well as fishbase.org

Wow that Severum is STRIPY! Is he always that dark? Mine seem to only change to their darker robust striping when they are are spooked or chasing eachother around (no damage done). The larger (assuming its male) one is darker more often than the smaller, which almost never stays dark for long periods.
I really like how you got those caves set up with the flat rocks, I can never seem to do that right (probably b/c the 200 lbs of rock I got from the rock yard were all dredged up river rock that was for the most part rounded if not brick-like.

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He is for the most part but when he gets chased it fades. The rocks I use pretty much in all my tanks are slate rock. It works great for stacking (without aquarium glue) or with if you prefer, i don't, and the fish love em. One thing to keep in mind with cichlid they want only 1 entrance to their caves/huts.

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20 Gallon, 6 zebra dinos, 4 green tigers, 3 dojo loach's, 2 blue gourami's, 2 GBR's, 2 bristle plecto's, 2 longfin rosybarbs, 1 syno cat, 1 leopard puffer
25 Gallon, 2 clown loach's, 1 yoyo loach, 1 veil angle, 1 royal plecto, 1 female krib.
36 Gallon bowfront, 1 Green Severum, 2 Auratus, 1 Venustus, 1 Acei, 1 Kenyi, 1 Duboisi, 1 Demasoni, 2 other africans I haven't identified, 2 Pictus Cat, 1 Rainbow shark, 3 tertas, 1 Firemouth cichlid

I used mongabay when I first identified them at their shop, the link you posted to them called them Black and Port Acaras..and they fit that description pretty well (they are about 4 inches long, so might not have full colorations yet). I'm not sure how to tell the difference between the original Port and the newer Black that you speak of. Mine have red eyes, metallic-baby blue pelvic fins with rust-orange pectorals. Their dark band extends from the eye to mid-way down the fish. They also have faint metallic baby blue scales near the head, as well as similarly colored gill plate "squiggles." They have darkend (not to black) several times during little quarrels and I was curious if this was breeding or just territory fighting because of their temporary bare-bottom 10 gallon. I then moved 2 of them into my Severum tank, where they are chased from time to time from the more aggressive smaller severum. I'm going to go grab some batteries for this camera sometime today.

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Finding "slate" for me has been pretty darned difficult. On top of this, my neighbor tells me that slate can be made of granite and several other types of rock. I always envisioned it to be just a solid black rock. The rock yard I went to had 0 slate. The 200lbs of rock samples I got there is primarily 2 types of stone with additional striated rocks that I have no idea how to test for heavy metal ores. I did, however, make the effort to buy a ~30% hydrocloric acid (I forget the name) and put drops and squirts of it over all these rocks to test if they reacted. Anything with limestone became a bubble bath (which was quite fun, and I went over board on one small rock to bore out a cave it had in it). I'm going to figure out how to rinse them properly next.
The main rock I think I will use is a brown "flint" rock, the type you can get a spark with. The other is some type of quartz or crystalline rock. I've read that some of these are fine, while others are very NOT fine. It is stained pink to yellow closer to the exterior, but has a white/clear cubical crystal interior and is not sharp. I'm pretty lost in the rock department tbh. Maybe I should bring them to up to campus and have some geologists look at them. A friend told me to run a metal detector over them LOL! I told him I'll go to the pawn shop with 200lbs of rock as soon as possible and tell them I want to test one of their rigs (joke).
Thanks for the info guys,
Craig

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I can get slate in warm months as i have to wade the river for it however i can get glacial shale anytime, its dark grey and my fish love it.

Wish I could get glacial would love to try it out. As for slate it's readily available here all year round (Florida, Tampa area) and I have piles of it in my back yard (used to make pool water fall) Yes slate can contain many metals but for me to see if its safe I wash it first with high pressure hot water. Then I soak in bleach for about 2-4 days (rock is porous) to kill anything that might be hiding in the rock. After soaking in bleach I then remove the rock and wash again with high pressure hot water then put it in a container with de-chlorinated water (Add a bit more de-chlorinator to make sure it gets the bleach in the rock) let soak for 1-2 weeks. After that the rock is then put into a quarantine tank with tetras snails, and shrimp, and a tiny khuli loach. leave rock in tank for about 5 days see if any creatures die/become ill if not then into primary tank it goes. Btw this can be done with multiple rocks just need a big enough soaking area (big trashcan)

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20 Gallon, 6 zebra dinos, 4 green tigers, 3 dojo loach's, 2 blue gourami's, 2 GBR's, 2 bristle plecto's, 2 longfin rosybarbs, 1 syno cat, 1 leopard puffer
25 Gallon, 2 clown loach's, 1 yoyo loach, 1 veil angle, 1 royal plecto, 1 female krib.
36 Gallon bowfront, 1 Green Severum, 2 Auratus, 1 Venustus, 1 Acei, 1 Kenyi, 1 Duboisi, 1 Demasoni, 2 other africans I haven't identified, 2 Pictus Cat, 1 Rainbow shark, 3 tertas, 1 Firemouth cichlid

I don't know if I'd trust 5 days of exposure to test for metals in a tank, won't it take quite some time to leach? I will definitely try this when I empty this 20 gallon tonight, I've already rinsed them down heavily with my thumb over the hose (not quite a pressure wash) and soaked half of them in this 20 gallon yard bucket. I'm scared of bleach (and don't have any lol), perhaps I can add some potassium permanganate to kill anything living in any holes. I don't have any khuli but I can add a few types of snails, ghost shrimp, and a single danio or some mosquito fish (which are so danged hardy they may not be a good choice).

Do you you guys think you could attempt an identification of a few rocks if I get some huge images of them linked here? I'm still putting this tiny vid together to show you the acaras. Last night I moved the remaining 2 from the uncycled tank into my now over crowded 30 gallon b/c the ammonia was getting high (I had expected the new 30 gallons to be setup several days ago, but the tank rack building has come to a pause...my carpenter-neighbor has some personal stuff goin' on and I dont want to be pushy. These "port cichlids" went crazy and changed to almost black and then back to pale again rapidly, with 2 of them showing almost complete black below the lateral line and the whole face (similar to breeding carpintis). I may attempt to build it myself tonight, although he never drew plans/explained how these few cut pieces of wood are to be assembled. He's not following a traditional overlap schematic, which worries me especially if I do it myself). This rack is being built first to house my fish until the 110 is setup and cycled, it will consist of 2x30 gallons and 1 or 2 20 gallons stacked vertically.
Fish video, rock pics, and a tank rack DIY video coming soon! Thanks again,
Craig

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